Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas
As I wait for the phone call from the Bucs on the press conference to officially announce Raheem Morris as head coach and Mark Dominik as general manager, I wanted to weigh in quickly on another big NFC South story.
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ESPN's Chris Mortensen broke the story last night that defensive end Julius Peppers wants out of Carolina. That may be shocking to a fan base that largely assumed the North Carolina born and bred Peppers automatically would want to stay with the Panthers forever.
But it shouldn't be.
This situation has been brewing for some time. The statement Peppers gave through his agent, Carl Carey, said the defensive end wants to go to a team where he can realize his full potential. Presumably, he wants to play in a 3-4 defense.
Although he had 14.5 sacks this season, Peppers hasn't been happy in Carolina for quite some time. When Peppers was playing miserably in 2007 (just 2.5 sacks), I asked a teammate about the widespread rumors that something might be wrong physically. The teammate laughed, said no and pointed to his head.
The teammate went on to say that Peppers had stopped buying into Fox and simply was going through the motions.
I thought maybe that situation had corrected itself when Peppers bounced back so strong this season. But we now know that didn't happen and it's pretty easy to see how this thing is going to play out.
Peppers doesn't want to be with the Panthers and they'll probably grant him his wish. But it's a little more complicated than just letting him walk into free agency. Most likely, the Panthers will place the franchise tag on Peppers and then try to trade him to another team in exchange for several draft picks.
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Pat Yasinskas
Yasinskas joined ESPN.com in January 2008 after covering the Carolina Panthers for The Charlotte Observer for nine seasons. He began his journalism career with The Tampa Tribune in 1990.